đ Hi, Iâm Andre and welcome to my weekly newsletter, Data-driven VC. Every Tuesday, I publish âInsightsâ to digest the most relevant startup research & reports, and every Thursday, I publish âEssaysâ that cover hands-on insights about data-driven innovation & AI in VC. Follow along to understand how startup investing becomes more data-driven, why it matters, and what it means for you.
Brought to you by Affinity - Insights you need to find, manage, and close more deals
2023 was volatile. Its twists and turns left many investors reeling. Will 2024 be any different?
Find out in a discussion featuring Affinity, Foxe Capital, SaaS Ventures, and Intel Ignite speakers. The session reveals findings from a survey of 700+ investors about the 2024 dealmaking environment, and how VCs are adapting their strategies to a changing market.
Welcome to our monthly wrap-up episode where weâll cover Januaryâs most relevant content at the intersection of VC, startups, data, AI & productivity. I read it all so you donât need to - here we gođ
INTERESTING RESEARCH & REPORTSđ
This section is a teaser for what you can expect from our new weekly âInsightsâ episodes launching next Tuesday: Alternating formats that âDigestâ the most interesting startup research & reports from the previous two weeks + âSynthesizeâ all available research to create a deep knowledge base for various startup topics.
What are the patterns of successful startups? We ran the numbers on 25k+ teams and found:
Number of executives: 3-6 is best, single founder is worst
CEO: Important to be founder, external CEO is bad
Age: Teams with higher age are more successful; little difference between 25 to early 40s
Education: Master and PhD similarly good, Bachelors and no degree both bad
Equity for Advisors: What's the Benchmark? When it comes to equity grants for advisors in US startups, recent Carta data from 47k+ advisor grants reveals some intriguing benchmarks:
Pre-Seed: Typically advisors receive a median grant of 0.25% of the company, aligning with the value suggested in the FAST templates
Seed Stage: Advisors at this stage see a median grant of 0.1%, marking a noticeable drop from 2022
Series A: The median grant stabilizes at 0.07%, remaining flat compared to the previous two years
INSPIRING TECH IN VC CONTENTđĄ
âHow Venture Capitalists Are Using AI To Invest More Effectivelyâ article by Vital Laptenok via Entrepreneur here, exploring how AI can augment or even replace human investors across the following tasks
Sourcing and screening startups
Classifying startups
Monitoring startups with high potential
Increasing diversity
âAI Tools for VCâ list by VC Lab here, highlighting useful tools across general research, thesis building, deal flow management, meetings, back office, and fundraising & LP investor relations
âVenture Capital's New Era: AI's Journey From Enhancing Operational Efficiency To Alpha Generationâ by Josipa Majic Predin in Forbes here, sharing how firms like Sequoia, A16Z, Tiger Capital, Iconiq, and others are using AI tools for two primary goals:
Anything from data analysis to co-pilot options to improve their daily operational efficiency e.g. document generation and process management using generative AI technology
Generating alpha includes more complicated tasks that require predictive AI: from sourcing deals to invest in, matching with optimal LPs that could invest in their fund to recruiting the best candidates to hire for existing portfolio companies
OTHER RESOURCESđď¸
Reddit and Seven Seven Six Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian joined Erik Torenberg in the Turpentine VC podcast here to discuss how his firm is a âtech company that deploys venture capitalâ, the lack of internal metrics in venture, and how he plans to reinvent venture using software
Rob Kniaz from H Tree Capital and Hoxton Ventures joined Ernests Stals in the Starwatcher Podcast here, talking about the changing investment landscape, how that is affected by the availability of data, and diving into some technical aspects of LLM's, data scraping, and data analysis for investors
âData-driven VC Landscape 2023â report explores how leading investors leverage data & AI by shedding light on 151 top VCs, 65 thought leaders, 400+ tools, hands-on guides for integrating ChatGPT, LLMs, and a lot more - participate in the next edition belowđ
EVENTSđ
Iâm planning a virtual âData-driven VC Summitâ. Sign up here if youâd like to join for free
âCatalyzing Change: The Power of AI & Data Science in Revolutionizing VC Fund Dynamicsâ panel with Ties Boukema (Dawn Capital), Konstantin Vinogradov (Runa Capital), Jack Leeney (7GC) , Marek Zamecnik (Vestberry), and myself at the 0100 Conference Feb 29, 2024 in Vienna here
âTECH IN VCâ JOBSđŠâđť
đĽSenior Software Engineer @Earlybird VC in Munich or Berlin heređĽ
đĽSoftware Engineer Intern @Earlybird VC in Munich or Berlin heređĽ
Tech Lead @All Iron Ventures in Bilbao here
Product Analyst @Balderton based in London here
Data Scientist @Blossom in London here
Analytics Engineer @Dawn Capital in London here
ML master student @EQT in Stockholm here
Data Engineer @Ethereal Ventures remote here
Analytics Engineer @Tidemark Capital in San Francisco Bay Area here
THIS MONTHâS DATA-DRIVEN VC EPISODESâŽď¸
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If you have any suggestions, want me to feature an article, research, your tech stack or list a job, hit me up! I would love to include it in my next editionđ.